


Constants and Variables

by thequadraticformula



Category: BioShock 1 & 2 (Video Games), BioShock Infinite, TWICE (Band)
Genre: Ages changed, Fate, Free Will, Gen, Gun Violence, Multiverse, Science Fiction, draft, loosely based on the bioshock universe, unedited
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:40:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27362143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequadraticformula/pseuds/thequadraticformula
Summary: 'Choice will prevail.'Momo wouldn't mind dying for free will."Jump back and smother her in the crib." Jihyo allowed a smirk to crack her hardened expression and she nodded at them both. "Your airship is ready at the docks. I wish you luck." She began to walk out of the meeting room but hesitated at the door, her leather gloved hands pausing as the gripped the wheel to open it.She looked back to the pair of them, her face once again softening, a kind of hopeful sadness clouding her eyes."I hope we never have to meet again." She muttered.WARNING: BIOSHOCK TRILOGY SPOILERS, MATURE CONTENT, VIOLENCE, COURSE LANGUAGE (also the age order is not consistent)
Kudos: 1





	1. [DRAFT] On the surface.

Chaeyoung's hand slowly slipped around Momo's wrist as they crouched behind a large dumpster in a dark alleyway.

"What?" Momo breathed frantically. "Do you see something?"

Her colleague's fingers tensed as a large truck rumbled by on the street, but Momo couldn't figure out what Chaeyoung was looking at. Not for the life of her. To her, everything was a new sight, sound and smell. After all, this was their first and most likely only day in Seoul.

Momo barely registered the increasing pressure Chaeyoung's fingers applied to her left wrist, her fingertips digging into the fabric of her black gloves.

Her eyes caught on a woman crossing the street. She was short with beautiful dark hair billowing around her shoulders as she walked. Momo recognised that she was pregnant, her eyes tracing along the subtle bump of her stomach. Then she recognised her face.

She felt her heart drop.

"That's..."

_That's..._

"We... we've jumped to far back. Much too far back." Chaeyoung's voice shook, her hand gripping her wrist ever tighter. Momo winced, but kept her eyes locked on the retreating figure of Chou Dahyun.

"We've... we..." Chaeyoung spluttered, finally releasing Momo's hand and fumbling for something in her coat pocket. "We've got to go forward... maybe a y-year..."

"But... she's right here! If we just talk to her–"

"Momo please."

The tone of her colleague's voice was so strange. Strange enough to pull Momo's attention away from Chou Dahyun who was almost out of sight. It sounded... tired... forlorn. As if she had relived this moment over and over again and everything always went to hell.

When she turned, Chaeyoung was standing up, holding something in her closed fist, outstretched for Momo to take in her own hands. Her cheeks were streaked with tears. Momo had no idea why.

"Hey... you okay? We can't let tears get in the way of this mission. Chou's getting away!"

"I shouldn't be saying this..." Chaeyoung sighed, her breath wavering as a tear dripped down the length of her nose. "But please... just leave her alone. You're only going to be hurting yourself if you go after her."

"The fuck does that mean. Chaeyoung what's going on?"

The hairs on the back of Momo's neck stood on end.

_I don't trust Chaeyoung. She just appeared out of nowhere one day. Never even registered by the system. She technically doesn't exist._

"It means, I'm offering you an out." She used her other hand to wipe her tears and sighed before looking at Momo in the eyes. She suddenly looked ancient.

_She pledged her allegiance to the vox populi like everyone else, but how can you trust the word of an existence without its essence?_

"Hold out your hand."

Momo did as she was told. Chaeyoung's outstretched hand placed a walnut into her hand.

"First choice: You can take the time machine and jump forward a year. It will prevent you from all the pain of the future. Kill the child. Go back to Tengoku. All is well."

_I_ _'m sending her on a mission with you. An important one. She might be a spy. We have no clue, nor a way of finding out for sure._

"Second choice: You run after Chou. Nothing changes."

"What the hell does that mean? We're wasting time."

_Kill her if she tries to sabotage anything. Don't hesitate. Kill her._

"Go. Just go."

Momo rolled her eyes as she turned and ran.


	2. [DRAFT] Freedom.

Jihyo reached into the box and pulled out what looked like a walnut shell. It was so underwhelming to look at that Momo almost laughed, but she knew that would be seen as disrespectful in the eyes of the leader of the Vox populi, so she instead kept her eyes steady on the small object and her mouth sealed. She felt the presence of Chaeyoung, beside her, shift. She must have been equally as disappointed.

"This is the time machine." Jihyo held the object forward, indicating that Momo should take it in her own hands. She did. It was unexpectedly cool to the touch and it vibrated sightly. A little twitch that was barely noticeable every second or two. Almost as if the little thing had its own heartbeat.

She looked up to see Jihyo standing before her with her arms folded. Her expression was set into a determined stare. Momo decided (with her four years under the Vox populi and working closely with its leader) that Jihyo's face was permanently set in that same hard stare. The stare that lay on the posters they had hung around the city of Tengoku, their slogans splashed across the bottom of the page with Jihyo's fist raised high and mighty. The stare that she held on her face when leading the protests through the streets. The stare that she had on her face in this very moment. It was intimidating.

"We know of the approximate location of Tzuyu's upbringing and the approximate year she was born."

Momo shivered at the mention of Chou Tzuyu. The leader – sorry, the dictator of Tengoku. It's creator and the reason that the Vox populi have suffered for so long.

"A reminder, Hirai, Son," She nodded at the girls each in turn. "To not stray too far from the map that we've laid out for you." Jihyo patted the chest pocket on the front of her blazer with the symbol of the Vox populi embroidered onto the black material. Momo had the same symbol on her own chest. Right over the heart. A red circle outlined in blue with an arrow pointing to a clear sky.

_We will overcome. Choice will prevail._

That was their motto.

Inside the chest pocket was a hologram device. If she were to take it out, it would be seen as a small grey box. Tapping the side in a specific pattern would open a projection of the streets of Seoul that Tzuyu had spent her early years of childhood in (Allegedly. Nothing much was known about their supreme leader. Momo knew there must have been a reason for that).

"We're still not completely in control of these time machines. There's still a lot to learn."

Once again, Momo was reminded that she was putting her life on the line for this mission. For the Vox populi. For all the people of Tengoku. For her own freedom. It was simultaneously thrilling to know that she could die at any second of her time she spent in the past and also very scary. She could feel Chaeyoung's tense aura around her. It wasn't helping her nerves.

"You know the plan." Jihyo started to pace before the two, her own body tensed, and her brows creased in the middle of her forehead. She was just as nervous as they were. "This is only the fourth time that this has been attempted, but we've learned a little more about Tzuyu each time. We're close. So close. Maybe this time will be the time. You two might hold the key to our freedom."

_Freedom_.

It seemed like such a foreign concept to Momo. She had spent her whole life in Tengoku. All 23 years of it under the menacing and controlling reign of Chou Tzuyu and her extremist followers. 23 years too long with every second of her life planned and written out in a file she kept on her wristwatch that she was supposed to consult every hour (and intermittently within said hour). Momo hadn't read through the whole thing because it was far too long and tedious, but scrolling through to see who she was designed to marry... how many children she was supposed to have... who she was allowed to be friends with... when she was set to die...

She didn't want that. None of it.

_We will overcome. Choice will prevail._

She reminded herself. She often reminded herself of the motto. Because Momo didn't want to succumb to fate. She deserved the right to free will. The whole of Tengoku deserved that right.

_Choice will prevail._

Momo wouldn't mind dying for free will.

"Jump back and smother her in the crib." Jihyo allowed a smirk to crack her hardened expression and she nodded at them both. "Your airship is ready at the docks. I wish you luck." She began to walk out of the meeting room but hesitated at the door, her leather gloved hands pausing as the gripped the wheel to open it.

She looked back to the pair of them, her face once again softening, a kind of hopeful sadness clouding her eyes.

"I hope we never have to meet again." She muttered.


	3. [DRAFT] A dictatorship.

[VOICE RECORDING] PARK JIHYO - 21XX

_It's interesting to think that I was born here... and I will die here. Never having seen the surface. It's also fascinating that my parents... and my grandparents... they decided to leave the world behind for something unknown._

_Although, if you think about it in the way of Chou Tzuyu, there is no unknown in Tengoku._

_It's safe to say that I know something isn't quite right with this life. But just because it's all I've ever known; doesn't mean I can't learn to live differently._

_It's 12:00. My wristwatch reads: "12:02 – Walks to the garden. Meets Hirai Momo for the first time."_

_What if I... just don't go?_


End file.
